Collect with Sword & White Knuckles

By Luke Scott Stringer

Isaiah 2:4

God, our safety, demilitarize me. Ask of me
more than weapons. Strip from me fear.

Kill in me what accepts otherdeath before owndeath.
Show my armies no mercy.

Rebuke my power, my moneyed love.
Show me again how safe you aren’t, and how great.

Bury me in the dust. Bury me instead
in the dirt you are working. Till things with me

till my red hands molder into green thumbs.
Let me be the sword you melted.

Let me be ploughshared. Blunt me
against your uncompromising soil.

Bury me, God, in the earth. Bury me
before I bury myself in the gut of my brother. 

“Collect with Sword & White Knuckles” Copyright © 2025 by Luke Scott Stringer ’18 B.A., ’23 M.A.R. With permission by the author.